Innocence is dead. Well, that is at least it is if you are a child living in the UK. Forget about scampering up tree houses, imaginary tea parties with cuddly toy animals or playing a simple game of catch. No, in the UK, every child will soon be considered to be a potential criminal. According to an article on The Register, the police have stored over half a million children's DNA onto a national database.

Even shadow home secretary, David Davies, has said this is an "extremely sinister development." The Register article claims that there are now over 4.1 million people's DNA on the police database. According to the Sunday Herald this is around 5% of the total population in the UK. The Sunday Herald article also highlighted a rather worrying fact, that officers now have the right to keep the DNA of innocent people, including children. From the article:

"In addition, the Home Office is currently consulting on plans to further expand police powers south of the border, which would allow genetic information from those suspected of minor offences, such as littering and speeding, to be kept on file."

The DNA database has long been a concern of civil liberty groups and now an independent government advisory body, the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) will launch an investigation of DNA sampling. From the article:

"A source at the HGC said: "I don't think there is any disagreement that DNA databases are useful things, but the discussion is who should be on it, how long you should be on it, and what safeguards should be in place."

The argument made by HGC is essentially irrelevant. The databases are useful only if they do not contradict the freedom of the individual and the assumption of innocent until proven guilty. Without those the UK is merely a slave state. Having any innocent people's DNA on a national database is an outrageous violation of privacy.

And we mustn’t forget – that those who are considered as innocent today may well find themselves branded as criminals in the future and forced to give DNA samples if the UK government has there way. If dropping litter is considered a crime worthy of taking a DNA sample from an individual – then how long before the entire population of the UK is on the database? Whatever happened to William Blackstones formulation that it is"better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"?

John Scott, a leading criminal lawyer and the former chairman of the Scottish Human Rights Centre hit the nail on the head when he said:

"It's an area where there have been increased police powers without adequate public debate about it,"
"The privacy of the individual is now insignificant as far as the government and police are concerned."

How the times have changed – when it now takes a lawyer to speak the truth. For details of the number of people on the UK’s DNA database visit this House of Commons page or visit Counciloftruth.com if you want updated news analysis on the impending police state.